Message from INTA's President to INTA Members

Dear Colleagues

We are happy, year after year, to count you as an active and reactive member of our "circle of progress, place of emergence of knowledge and sharing of experiences," according to the beautiful definition of INTA from one of you. Your involvement in our statutory meetings, your participation in the activities and meetings, your dedication to this intellectual and human adventure gives our association the credit and the strength to act for the cities and territories, and to deploy globally and locally a collective action, concrete and unique.

Therefore, thank you for what you bring to INTA.

Here we are at the beginning of a new year that we wish you happy, fruitful and peaceful. We hope that the new initiatives taken by your association will help you in your professional practice.

Allow me a brief step backwards.

At the beginning of 2017, I presented you the orientations that we wanted to implement with your support: to consolidate our presence on the international level, in particular in Latin America and Africa, but also to concentrate our efforts on the more advanced economies. And, I gave you the outline of the 2017 programme. You will find online the calendar of activities carried out in 2017; it was a rich year and we attained our goals.

Our new programme, the interactive breakfasts (INTAKAWA), organized in partnership with the Palladio Foundation was a success, an initiative that will be extended in 2018. More than 150 people took part in the discussions and the synthesis of the 10 debates, for members only, were sent to all members by email, and are still available by simple request to the secretariat.

The main theme of our activities in 2017 was, on the one hand the articulation of urban development with peri-urban and rural territories, on the other hand innovation as a factor of sustainability and social inclusion. Our international peer-to-peer panels took us to the Lyon area (Vénissieux), Peru (Arequipa) and Mexico (Puebla). Today, everyone recognizes both the need for new forms of partnerships between territorial scales and the diversity of urban stakeholders, and therefore an increased attention to change. Aware of the transitions and disruptions that affect cities and territories, INTA will act in 2018 on three dimensions: inform, influence, intervene.

Informing to anticipate changes and disruption A significant work is being done on a new definition of sustainable development and on city financing that will be reported at the next World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur in February 2018. A topical issue, the articulation of metropolises, medium and rural towns will be the theme of a seminar in Nice in June. The partnership with the Palladio Foundation on the real estate economy and the city is illustrated by a common event taking place at the end of the summer

Influencing to advance and pass on knowledge The 2017 World Congress is delayed until April 16-17, 2018 and will be hosted by the City of Malmö and the Nordic City Network. The theme chosen, the Partnership for Development, echoes the sustainable development goals Nos. 11 and 17 of the United Nations. On the occasion of its 850th anniversary the city of Rostock in Northern Germany will host the 42nd Congress focussing on innovative mid-sized cities.

Intervening to enrich the professions and share the know-howSeveral international Peer-to-Peer Panels, our collaborative and participatory workshops, are being prepared in Canada, Peru, then France and England, Indonesia, Morocco and West Africa; they will be announced on our website. An urban and cultural itineraries in Nicaragua is in a planning stage. INTA continues its partnership with the newspaper Le Monde specifically with the Award for Innovation and Citizen Participation. Feel free to apply for the European or International Awards. And of course, we maintain a full capacity to respond to requests from our members and partners on issues that require immediate attention.

Our website, visited every day by thousands of visitors, will continue to evolve, especially with the redesign of our multimedia area that will allow you to access more easily all productions (publications, videos, photos, etc.) of the network .

Looking forward to seeing you again, and I hope even more numerous than in 2017, to our events and meetings, the Governing Board, the INTA Secretariat and myself renew our wishes for a year 2018 under the triple motto: exchanges, sharing and innovation.

Maurice CharrierINTA President Honorary Vice President of Greater Lyon, France

President's message

Dear ColleaguesWe are happy, year after year, to count you as an active and reactive member of our "circle of progress, place of emergence of knowledge and sharing of experiences," according to the beautiful definition of INTA from one of you... // Read more